Day Trip to Truckee – Electrical Cord Burnt

On Thursday mom, dad, Marcia and I took the 90 mile trip up to Truckee to enjoy the wonderful blue sky, 50 degree weather, snow on the ground from last weekend’s snow storm, and relatively light traffic.  At the summit we turned onto old highway 40, and got this view of Donner Lake, similar to the one that Marcia and I got during the summer.  Only bad thing…left my camera at home.    

On our way out of town we stopped by the blood factory so that dad could get his pro time test that he gets every few weeks.  There were six large turkeys in the parking lot…wonder how long that will last with Thanksgiving right around the corner.

It is hard to imagine that 169 years ago the snow was 5 to 10 feet up in this area while the Donner party was stuck down by the lake below.  Oh, how Northern California could use that snow this year!

We ate lunch at Smokey's Kitchen, a place that Marcia and I ate at over the summer.  Back then the place was packed, it took nearly an hour to get our food, but it was very tasty then.  Yesterday, we were the only ones there when we arrived, it took us longer to decide what to have then it took for them to cook it, and by the time we left there were 20 or so people in there. Dad and I had burgers, Marcia had a Veggie Omelet, and mom had a Spinach Salad.  Marcia and I splurged and got a rack of beef ribs to go, and had them for dinner. 

After lunch we took a little drive around town, went by our favorite Truckee campground and hit the road.  At our campground, by-the-way, they had closed off all by a handful of camping spots…the only one being used was by a person in a car eating their lunch.  With temps in the teens at night, one could understand why no one is camping…and everything looked to be free.   By 2 pm we were back home in time for dad to catch another episode of the “The Five”.

Today we had a small electrical issue.  Our 30 amp plug had burnt out.  Had an extra, better plug in the storage bin, and Arny, who is an expert at this stuff, attached the wires for me.  I had attached these set back in the fall of last year, and the black wire (left side) was not tight enough, allow for an arch which causes heat which causes breakdown.  The wires and cord are still in good shape, and the newer plug has more secure attachments, so I think we are good to go again.

Speaking of “GO”, we leave next Friday….but first, someone turns the big “60” and a few days later we celebrate our Ancestors fall celebration. 

Laundry, Rain, Birthday Girl

Ok, you don’t need to see the laundry….but look at this coming in over Mesa Verde around 5 pm last night.  “Did it rain?”,  you asked.  Let’s just say that once it started raining around 7, it pretty much did not stop until 10 am this morning.  And the few times it did stop, it was for only 15-30 minutes, enough to get the dogs out before bedtime …although one little girl insisted on going out again around 1:30, thank goodness she does not do that very often.  She is so afraid of Lightening and Thunder that it probably scared the sh—, err, skata out of her.  And of course if she goes out, Bubba wants out too…one at a time while I stood at the door with a flashlight.

The clouds coming in sure made for some dramatic landscape.  Maybe that’s why this is a RV resort…it comes with dramatic landscape.

   

Speaking of drama….this morning we got up, and no television stations....found out later that the local retransmission stations must of had direct hits from the lightening. This morning we also “got” to move to a full hookup spot now that the Winnie Group has left….they brought in around 20 RV’s into this small RV Resort, err, park.  Got hooked up at the new place, but we had NO ELECTRICITY!!!!   The Surge Guard said that we had good power, but when tested the female end of the yellow electrical line in the upper right picture (which is not plugged into the motorhome), it said we had 45v, not the 118v the Surge Guard said we did.  I remember showing the male end of the yellow cord to Arny a few months ago and we thought it was on its last leg….but I sure thought it would have made it to Florida.  So I took a trip to Cortez to see if I could get a new plug.  On my way there I started going through my mind what might have caused this...and it hit me. When wrapping up the cord for the move, I put it on a picnic table and started wind around my arm, and the male end of the cord went crashing down to the rocks under the table and I thought, "Gee, that can't be good....", but never did even look at it since it was not a severe fall.  But for a 10 year power cord, it was severe enough...and it must have landed on right on one of the metal prongs because it was bent when I tried to plug it in after our move.  Walmart had a 15 amp plug, which would do in a pinch but not good for full 30amp use…but I asked if there was hardware store around.  Sure enough, True Value was less than 2 miles away (which is good because the entire town of Cortez is like 3 miles in length and I was 1/2 mile into town to get to Wally World.

Sure enough, True Value came through.  For $12 I picked up this 30amp black connector, which is now attached to the yellow wire and plugged into the black female end of the Surge Guard. WE HAVE POWER!

Someone is having a birthday today….might be that little black thing in Marcia’s chair, but we don’t know what her birthday is since she was rescued off the streets.  In fact, there is a slight possibility, however very very very slight, that she is older in dog years than Marcia is in human years.  We just got back from Marcia’s birthday dinner when I asked her for the camera for more pictures…..got her!  On the way back from the hardware store I spotted a place called the Main Street Brewery and Restaurant.  After I got the power up and going, we up and went back to Cortez to get a bite to eat, and the food was real good.  It was only 3:30 on a Sunday, so there were few people, it was quiet, and they had interesting décor.  She had a Ribeye steak, I had something they call the Brewers Plate, which has three different types of Sausages, Sauerkraut, Mashed Potatoes, and a homemade mustard.  It was delicious!  

    

Earlier before we moved, I took the covers off the front windows.
 

    

As you can see, one was more interested in looking out than the other.  But look at the front window in front of Skruffy….the rain was still coming down and down.  

    

From 11 am until 5 pm we had relatively little rain…then I took these pictures around 4:30….and another cloud burst went through from 5-7.  Hope tomorrow is dry enough to get to Mesa Verde.  Oh, nearly forgot….on the way back from Cortez we can see snow on the tops of the mountains to the east, northeast of us!  Hope that does not last long….